By resolution 71/258, the General Assembly had decided to convene in 2017 a United Nations conference to negotiate a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons, leading towards their total elimination. The Assembly had encouraged all Member States to participate in the Conference and decided that it shall convene in New York, under the rules of procedure of the General Assembly unless otherwise agreed by the Conference, with the participation and contribution of international organizations and civil society representatives. The Conference was held in New York from 27 to 31 March and from 15 June to 7 July. The Conference also held a one-day organizational session in New York on 16 February 2017.

The decision to convene the Conference followed the recommendation of the open-ended working group on taking forward multilateral disarmament negotiations, convened pursuant to resolution 70/33. The open-ended working group, chaired by Ambassador Thani Thongphakdi (Thailand), specified in its report that a legally binding instrument to prohibit nuclear weapons would establish general prohibitions and obligations as well as a political commitment to achieve and maintain a nuclear-weapon-free world. The primary mandate of the open-ended working group was to address concrete effective legal measures, legal provisions, and norms that would need to be concluded to attain and maintain the world without nuclear weapons.

Pursuant to the same on 7th July 2017 the Draft Treaty was voted upon and passed with 122 Yes against 1 No (by Netherlands) and 1 Abstention (Singapore).

Unfortunately, all nuclear powers, including United States, United Kingdom, India, France, Russian Federation, China and, Pakistan skipped the voting process. Even nuclear capabilities suspected Israel skipped the vote while on the bright side, Iran voted yes. Apart from that, all the NATO Nuclear Sharing states excluding Netherlands, including Belgium, Germany, Italy and, Turkey also skipped the voting process. Netherlands, on the other hand, choose to vote “No” on the Draft Treaty.